#376 Television – Marquee Moon

Television’s “Marquee Moon” is an epic of a song, bringing together such muscle and grace in its ten-minute form. Compositionally it builds majestically as the guitar solos weave their interlocking lines. Yet, more than the solos, it is the duelling guitars from Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd that make the song the achievement it is. The tight interplay between the two guitarists foreshadow the democratic relationship of other guitar duos – Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, Jonny Greenwood and Ed O’Brien – who share the work between lead and rhythm, between melody and mood. Moving between the propulsive rhythms of the verses and the freer wanderings of the solos, Verlaine and Lloyd trade lines that bait, hide, and seek, impressing me even as someone who isn’t particularly interested in guitar solos. “Marquee Moon” is a ten-minute song, but makes me wish it was twenty. – Song-Ming.

mp3: Television – Marquee Moon

Song-Ming Ang makes art about music.